libya. >> general petraeus's briefing was comprehensive. i think it was important to add it to our ability to make judgments about what is clearly a failure of intelligence. >> reporter: petraeus told lawmakers he believed all along terrorists carried out the attack that killed u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. lawmakers are trying to sort out what the obama administration knew and understand why five days after the attack, u.n. ambassador susan rice was talking about a spontaneous protest. democrats who listened to petraeus testify were quick to defend rice. >> she used the unclassified talking points that were signed off on by the entire intelligence community. so criticisms of her are completely unwarranted. >> reporter: in both hearings friday, petraeus addressed his

resignation because of an affair with his biographer paula broadwell. lawmakers said the former cia director apologized and assured them his personal situation had no bearing on the benghazi investigation. senator john mccain said general petraeus told him that he never spoke to the president about benghazi. he dealt with the director of national intelligence. on capitol hill, daniel nottingham. lesli, back to you. and top national security officials were on capitol hill this week to deal with the fallout from the petraeus sex scandal. and defense secretary panetta has ordered a review of ethics training for all military officers. less than 24 hours after a not guilty verdict shocked the bowie state university community, people are still talking about this case. i'm talking about the murder trial of alexis simpson, the girl accused of killing her roommate, dominique frazier, which was closely followed on

social media. andrea mccarren was on campus when the verdict came down. >> reporter: there is a mix of emotions. shock. sadness. and relief that this high- profile murder case appears to be over. >> a lot of students are disappointed. a lot of people were shocked, when i saw the news. i s like whoa, wow. >> reporter: the bowie state university campus is healing, after a violent fight between roommates ended in death and traumatized the school community. >> i think it's tragic. but at the same time, i heard she was bullied and in a scary situation like that, you are going to try to defend yourself. >> reporter: alexis simpson admitted in court that she plunged a knife into the neck of her roommate, dominique frazier, but she testified it was an act of fear, an act of self-defense, a rare and risky defense. >> everybody was surprised. it's all or nothing. it's a gamble for the defendant but it paid off. she said, i did it, but i did

it because my life was in danger. i did it in self-defense. >> reporter: they were disturbed by testimony that both young women kept knives in their dorm rooms. >> it is definitely a violation of university policy to have weapons of any kind in the rooms, so the fact that they were there is certainly a disciplinary matter that would be dealt with if it had been known. >> reporter: still unanswered is whether the family of murder victim dominique frazier will file a civil suit against the university or alexis simpson. bowie state says it has not been served with any legal papers. andrea mccarren, 9 news. >> the school has learned from this tragedy, they say, and will have sessions on how to handle disputes with civility and without violence. the principal charged with assault pleaded not guilty. the principal of coolidge high

-- after the court appearance today, jarret was released on her own recognizance but was ordered to stay away from hicks. and a school bus crash in howard county, on route 97, on roxbury mills road. what a mess on the road and one child on that bus, two adults as well, suffered some bumps and bruises. it is believed that a car clipped that school bus. palestinian militants in gaza aimed a rocket at jerusalem today, setting off air raid sirens. israeli police say the rocket landed in the west bank, about ten miles away from the holy city. >> reporter: israeli war planes unleashed more guns on the gaza strip friday. the military says the strikes hit the interior ministry, hamas and several other hamas targets. palestinian militants fired

back with a long-range rocket aimed at the port city of tel aviv. panicked israelis ran for shelter. a siren sounded in the capitol. this man says he was at the beach and suddenly he couldn't breathe from all the smoke. israeli police say the rocket landed in the sea. the same thing happened a day earlier. for a third day, the conflict is raging. israeli troops are on stand-by for a possible ground assault. protesters joined funeral processions to demand an end to it. egypt's prime minister condemned israel. he promised to work with arab leaders to broker a truce. anti-missile systems have intercepted over 100 rockets but hundreds more have made it

across the border. the military warned if rockets keep coming, they may send tanks and soldiers into gaza. cbs 9 news. >> the last war in gaza was nearly four years ago. israeli troops launched a three- week ground and air invasion. 1400 palestinians and 13 israelis were killed. two people are dead, two others missing, after an oil rig exploded off the coast of louisiana. four others are in the hospital with burns. investigators say the blast ripped through the energy company platform as workers were using a cutting torch. thick, black smoke could be seen for miles around. the platform is located southeast of grand isle, louisiana. the two missing workers jumped overboard. the missing child that sparked an amber alert this morning has been found. 18-month-old alexis carwile and her mother jennifer were found in maryland.

both are safe. the father was taken into custody earlier this morning. the alert was triggered last night from halifax county, virginia. it is the end of an era after 80 years in business. hostess brand, the company that makes wonder bread and twinkies, is going out of business. hostess says a nationwide labor strike crippled its ability to make and deliver products. more than 18,000 workers will lose their jobs. the union blames management for the company's financial problems. the company is going to try to sell off its brands as it shuts down its bakeries and plants around the country. >> the hostess name has value of its own and we believe there are companies out there looking to purchase that name and continue making the product. >> hostess products will stay on store shelves for as long as they last, which may be just a few days. experts say the company buckled

at increased competition and america's trend to eat more healthfully. >> folks have to have their hostess, and a lot of folks buying today were of a certain age. scott broom is in rockville at the wonder baker thrift store where it's pretty nostalgic for scott. >> reporter: they bought as many as they could carry. >> and i cannot let my granddaughters grow up without having tasted the original twinkie. >> i mean, i don't eat them too much. >> reporter: they filled the backs of minivans. >> where are you going to put all these twinkies? >> i have no idea. we live in a small townhouse. >> reporter: and they remember. >> ever since i was a kid, i loved it! >> and i like the swirl on it and i would eat that first. >> hostess twinkies!

>> yahoo, the fresh snacks with a smack in the middle! >> reporter: today, emotions ran high enough at this store, police were called to shoe the media away. so they became the icon of junk food. customers say this is all about remembering a happy, boomer childhood, before the foodies spread guilt across the land. >> so you asked your mom to get you a package or two of fresh hostess twinkies. >> this is a treat. and now i'm busted! i got busted! >> reporter: despite the bankruptcy of hostess, there is some hope that twinkie may yet survive if anothebaking company buys the brand and decides to resurrect it. in rockville, scott broom, 9 news now. >> and we've got some twinkies and things here. i will just note there is a best buy date here. it's got a month, a day.

it does not have a year! >> you know what? it's november 25, which you can assume means it's coming up soon, buddy. you know what? >> 2035. >> you should just stop talking and take a bite of your hostess treat. who doesn't love twinkies? >> i'm more of a cupcake guy. >> you were hating on the ho- ho's. >> they are down there with those snow-ball coconut things they used to have. >> listen, if you can't go without twinkies, we've got a recipe for you on our website. >> i have fine taste. >> i got left out of the taste testing! bring some in here! coming up, comedy central ephen colbert puts his debut on his wax figure here in

washington. we're looking at kind of a chilly night but a pretty nice november night for high school football play-offs. potentially dress for the 40's if you're going to go to a high school football game tonight. we'll come back and take you all the way through the weekend and into next week, including travel day wednesday. but first, democrats and republicans sit down for their first meeting on finally find a way to avoid the fiscal cliff.

you know, we're laughing at the graphic with the people going -- it's not funny. >> it's not funny. >> but the graphic is funny. we gotta have a little bit of levity when we're talking about something this crazy. >> and that has gone this far. >> congressional leaders and

president obama held talks today about how to avoid the so- called fiscal cliff. >> they have until the end of the year to come to a budget agreement. and spending cuts go into effect at the same time and could plunge the economy back into a recession. both sides are optimistic a deal can be reached. >> it was a constructive meeting. we all understand where we are. >> that optimism is not shared by a large part of the country, though. 51% believe lawmakers will fail to reach an agreement, preventing the economy from going over the fiscal cliff. >> that fiscal cliff and the petraeus scandal will dominate the discussion on this week's face the nation. bob schieffer is with us now live. bob, in all the complaining about this fbi investigation and whether or not they told congress about the petraeus situation soon enough, is there

just the tiniest little hint in there, that this scandal, if it had come out sooner, might have affected the election? >> i don't really think it would be, quite frankly, because i don't think it had much to do with what the campaign was all about. this campaign was about the economy, about jobs. it was about a lot of things and i do not think that the head of the cia resigning would have made all that much difference. i may be totally wrong about that, but i just don't think it would have. >> i think you're probably right. let's talk about the fiscal cliff, because i'm trying to figure out just how much compromise is actually on the table, because despite accommodating rhetoric, both sides seem to be digging in they're heels, not too far away from where they were last year. >> i think that's exactly right, derek. i think what you saw is both sides, there has to be a beginning. you have to lay out your opening positions and that's

what you saw both sides do. one of the things that might help here, we've had so much more news in this investigation into benghazi, the scandals that have gone around. now we've got this bad situation in the middle east once again. there's so much news going on, maybe the people working on this fiscal cliff can kind of get under the radar here for a little while, because they're going to have to get behind closed doors, work out a deal there, and then come out and present it to the public. so while the news maybe and all the rest of us are focused on everything else, maybe, maybe somehow they might work something out. i don't think we could wish for it to come about that way, these conditions, but conditions being what they are, maybe they can take advantage of, you know, not being in the glaring spotlight for a while and come to such agreement. one thing is for sure, derek. they've gotta find a way out of this. >> very quickly, bob, who is on the radar for your broadcast on

sunday in face the nation? >> well, we have john mccain and we'll get his version of why he is saying that no way, no how can he support susan rice for secretary of state. we'll see what he has to say about that. he'll be our lead guess. >> all right, bob schieffer, face the nation. thank you. we'll be watching on sunday. >> okay. people who were without power for over two weeks because of hurricane sandy might find this hard to believe. a new report finds that the utility company response was typical or even a little faster than after other big storms. associated press released those findings. energy department records show that new york utilities restored power to at least 95% of those customers, some 13 days after the hurricane hit. ap says power restorations took longer after hurricanes katrina, wilma and ike, which does sound surprising. >> not really. you have to understand, it's more built up.

you're putting telephone poles in by hand basically. gloria went through long island in '85. it took three weeks to get power back there. we are having a nice weekend. i added a couple of high clouds on sunday. other than that, that's it. this is a beautiful shot from our weather cam. you can see the washington monument, clear skies. sun is going down. going to get chilly now. 49 at national, but everybody else in the low to mid 40's already. pressure is steady. and really looking at a crisp night. breezes will pick up a little bit later on tonight. so if you're headed out, it is friday after all. if you're going to be out late, make sure you remember the coat. we'll take you out west for just a minute, because it's just raining from l.a., almost san diego to seattle and i point this out because that's where it's going to be stormy all weekend, which is one reason we're going to enjoy a

nice weekend. and also, this is where it's going to be stormy next wednesday for travel day. the rest of the country looks pretty darn quiet. we had a few high clouds earlier. everything moved on out to sea. we were left with a glorious day. 50 in bethesda. 47 in springfield. still 50 in college park. we'll give you that and 48 over in bowie. a nice weekend ahead. chilly for high school football. nice for the terps game and nice for the redskins game. for mid november, pretty nice. 28 to 38 tonight. winds north-northeast at 10. if the winds pick up, it will add a little chill to the air. 30's and 40's on sunday. by afternoon, just in time for

the terps game, mostly sunny, a bit cool but pleasant. figure on temps 48 to 54 and winds at 10. for the rest of the afternoon, we're in great shape. mostly sunny and cool, highs near 55. redskins forecast, nice also. we're looking at partly cloudy skies. temperatures 52 to 57, a few clouds come in late but that really is it. the next three days our weather alerts are green, green and green. nice on saturday, nice on sunday. and seasonable on monday. 57. sounds pretty nice. next seven days, we put some showers in on tuesday. i'm not sold on it completely, a quiet travel day on wednesday. and i put 60 on the seven-day, 60 for turkey day and 62 for friday. it's a little warm for my taste but there you go. >> we're still waiting for the

neck. >> he's gone. he's gone. we ate him. >> no. we want him back! >> and you say it was -- >> it was what derek wanted. >> it was delicious! >> okay. coming up, police think they know why a woman broke through a gate and onto an airport runway with a young child in her car. >> investigators begin to piece together what caused the train crash that killed four veterans who were participating in a parade. here are more great local deals from deal chicken.

new information tonight on the accident that killed four people, injured 16 others, all while they were in a veterans day parade. federal investigators arrived on the scene in midland, texas, this afternoon. they're looking at surveillance footage from the freight train that slammed into a float that was packed with wounded veterans and their wives. witnesses say the float on the back of the flatbed was stopped on the tracks when the gates at the rail crossing started to come down. trucks in the front and back kept it from moving out of the way. >> the gates actually hit the first people on the trailer. it started going back up, and

it wasn't, i'd say, eight to ten seconds later, the train blew through the end of the trailer. >> the community held a prayer vigil for the victims this morning. union pacific is offering to help their families. a spokesperson says it's unclear when the crew saw the stopped truck and the parade float. a woman in phoenix, arizona, is being questioned tonight after ramming her car through an airport gate. investigators say the woman drove right through the gate at the phoenix sky harbor international airport last night. officers forced her to stop after she started crossing the runway. nobody was hurt. no surprise here. investigators say the woman appeared to be on drugs. we've got a reminder now for commuters in northern virginia. the 495 express lanes officially open tomorrow. lanes in each direction will run right alongside the existing beltway and they cover a 14-mile stretch of 495, all

the way from the dulles toll road to springfield. if you want to use them, you have to have an easy pass or a flex pass, if you're in a carpool of three or more. is your dishwasher safe? this woman came home and found hers smoking. up next, a warning everyone needs to see. stephen colbert immortalized in wax. how painful was it, and what advice does he have? i'm bruce. the story coming up. but first, the state of maryland reaches a decision on whether to ban the sail of crib bumpers. we'll tell you about that, coming up.

two big stories that impact our children's safety top tonight's consumer alert. a recall of travel beds. and a ban on bumpers. 220,000 portable beds are being recalled after one infant died and nine others either got trapped or fearly suffocated. there is now a kit available to fix those. but the group, kids in danger, urges parents not to use the product for infants under age one. and maryland will now ban the sale of crib bumpers starting in june of 2013. the department of health determined that the pads provide no real benefits and in fact in many cases are dangerous. it's something our consumer team first told you about more than a year ago. doctors say a baby can stop breathing if they turn into the

pad and can't turn over or if they get their little head trapped between the mattress and the pad. so the message tonight is babies are safe when you remember your abc's. they should sleep alone, on your backs, and in a crib without a bumper. the workhorse in one woman's kitchen did more than just clean her dishes. a virginia woman contacted us when she came home to the smell of smoke and couldn't get any help from the company that made her dishwasher. a story you will see only on 9. >> i opened my front door. i immediately smelled an electrical smell of fire. >> reporter: back in august, jennifer meyers said she returned to her arlington home just in time. >> the counter top was burning hot. i opened the dishwasher, immediately saw that the tray had started to discolor. there was also heat wafting out at me. >> reporter: she says her

diswasher started up while she was gone. >> when i left the house, the dishwasher door was closed. but i had not activated it. it turned itself on while i was out at the house. >> reporter: how that happened is still a mystery. according to consumer reports, more than 15 million appliance units in the past five years have been recalled for problems that could cause a fire. their analysis of the complaints showed almost half of those recalled units were diswashers. and a significant number of appliance problems were not caused by human error. >> we found at least 23% are clearly attributable to problems with the appliances, mechanical, electrical or design flaws. in some instances, the appliances turned on by themselves. >> reporter: when jennifer contacted ge, she says the company offered little to no help. >> the offer was to try replacing a part that they don't know definitively caused the problem and for me to keep the same unit in my house.

i think it's very irresponsible. >> reporter: so we reached out to ge to help get some answers. initially, ge offered jennifer a voucher to recover part of the cost to replace her diswasher. then they reconsidered. they touted their extent safety and consumer satisfaction record. they also offered to replace her dishwasher or give her a refund. the company also plans to take jennifer's old unit and do research to determine what's wrong. for now, she's washing dishes by hand. and jennifer says she won't ever buy a ge product again. >> and they've lost my customer loyalty. >> but you did get some action? >> only because of you. >> reporter: now, ge says jennifer's experience is rare. the company recalled 1.3 million diswashers back in august because of an electrical failure in the heating element of certain models. jennifer's model is not part of any recent or past recall.

to protect your home, consumer reports says be sure to register your appliances in case of a problem. don't use your dryer or diswasher at night or while you're away and make sure you check the electrical wiring in an older home to make sure it can handle the demands of modern appliances. stephen colbert says there's only a couple of differences between him and the new wax figure he revealed today at madame tussauds wax museum. the real stephen colbert says he always broadcasts naked from the waist down. >> now, we asked, but they said no, we would not be allowed to do that. >> no, no, no! >> and we were really disappointed until bruce leshan told us there are other differences too. >> reporter: ladies and gentlemen, one, two, me! >> reporter: stephen colbert plays a pompous, right-wing pundit on comedy central.  >> i point the finger at

american enemies. >> reporter: and like anyone vain enough to appear on tv every night, he just cannot get enough of himself. ah, self-love. >> mmm. >> reporter: he says the artist painted him in dots and measured him with calipers. >> i even sent him a colonoscopy. >> reporter: but they missed one important detail. i tried not to be a pompous tv guy myself. >> how do they do this? do they dip you entirely in hot wax and then it pulls all your hair out and everything? >> most of the time they actually murder the subject. >> reporter: they didn't murder dan rather, but they did relegate him to the gift shop.

colbert was born in d.c. and he says he's happy to be back. but the guy who has run for president a couple of times refuses to divulge his secrets for solving the nation's problems. >> i'm not gonna tell you. you have to elect me first. why buy the cow when you can get the answer to our nation's problems for free? >> reporter: he hopes another politician will join him in wax soon. >> john boehner, he has a waxy quality. >> reporter: now, madame tussauds wax museum says stephen colbert will be on permanent display. but the media worries that global warning will steve the stephen colbert figure melted on the floor. prescription for success tonight. a new book out called life code, the new rules for winning in the new world. dr. phil spoke about his inspiration on 9 news at noon

today. >> from time to time, i get people coming at me and my family, trying to exploit us, trying to use us, trying to abuse us. and then i thought, you know what? i'm going to look at the pattern and see if there's a consistency here of who it is that comes after us, are there commonalities among these people and commonalities among what they do. and i was overwhelmed when i looked at all of the people over the years, how common they were in terms of their characteristics and their tactics, what they did. >> don't forget, you can watch dr. phil every day here at 4 p.m., right before 9 news at 5. coming up, why the lead singer of poison was at an area store today. up next, an exhibit dedicated to the enemies of britain's most famous fictional spy. i'll give you a hint. don't forget, we're always

on wusa9.com. stay with us. we'll be right back.

great trailer, with the new james bond movie now in theaters, d.c.'s international spy museum is offering an exhibit for people who just can't get enough of 007. >> it commemorates 50 years of bond movies and villains. the displays include the green jaguar. also, remember jaws from the spy who loved me? i thought those teeth were real! >> yes, you did. you can now try out your best figure skating moves on a new ice rink. i'll give you $5 to go do that and let us tape you doing it. >> what, ice skating? >> $5, that's all it would be worth. >> d.c. leaders cut the ribbon

today on canal park, a three- block city park that features an ice skating rink and a sculpture garden. a federal grant helped to jump- start the project. >> anita is like, you're breaking the bank! >> $5! >> meantime, an supply store held an event for a rock star. he made a special appearance at a store. toys, collars, leashes for the pets. he took time to sign autographs also for his two-legged fans. >> pet rock collection? still ahead, the wrath of superstorm sandy, actually caught on tape, so we can see what it looked like the night it hit two underground transit stations. it was not pretty. first, a weekly look at

some local restaurants that don't quite cut it when it comes to cleanliness.

okay. be warned. in tonight's food alert. roaches on a meat slicer at a white table cloth restaurant in bethesda and a high-end chain shut down in tysons corner. here's investigative reporter russ paticek. >> reporter: everywhere we go, we ask the same question.

can we take a look right now at your kitchen? "right now" means different things to different people. at paul kee's kitchen, they told us they had cleaned up the violations and we could look for ourselves if we just wait a couple of minutes. then there was a flurry of activity at the hanging duck. >> it's been over ten minutes now. >> reporter: they were cleaning up. we're now over 20 minutes. customers continue to order carry-out. >> i ordered duck. i had a duck and the pig. >> are you going to eat it? >> don't know. >> reporter: over 36 minutes later, they're telling us we can now go in and take a look at the kitchen. when we got in the kitchen, the drain was still covered with debris and the floor was so wet, we couldn't identify the mush we found, but health inspectors cited mice droppings, heavily soiled equipment and ordered a

closure, saying hanging pork and duck were stored at temperatures experts say could make you sick. in the district, at mason inn on wisconsin avenue in glover park, it was operating without hot water that resulted in a closure there. mason inn's owner e-mailed, saying he'd only been without hot water for an hour, but declined to explain why they continued operating with conditions that experts say created food dangers. no hot problem was also the problem in silver spring at el pollo kiki riki. this wasn't the first time for el pollo kiki riki. this summer, inspectors shut them down for operating with no electricity, meaning no proper refrigeration. at tysons galleria, inspectors shut down williams-sonoma, a store famous for high-end cooking supplies. in bethesda, 25 years of white

table cloths and fine dining at tragara on cordell avenue, came to a sudden and potentially sickening end when inspectors cited 24 violations at the italian restaurant, finding mice droppings in both kitchens, on the shelves, storage, waiter stations, and live roaches on the meat slicer. tag tragara was in the middle of a sale. workers were assembling new chairs and polishing the now empty kitchen and changing the name. >> i guarantee you, the violations are no longer in place. my entire staff has worked very hard to get this kitchen up to code. >> reporter: all those places have been reinspected, passed and back in business. i'm russ paticek, 9 news. >> okay, russ. an update tonight on a push to keep the cold air inside at d.c. restaurants. we told you last month, the d.c. council was considering a bill to fine businesses that

leave their door open while their air conditioners are running in the summer. now that the council has approved that bill, restaurants can be fined $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second, $400 for a third and $800 for a fourth. powerful new video out of new jersey from the flooding caused by superstorm sandy. the port authority released this footage today. this is in new jersey. as you can see, the water was just pouring in, and then the turnstiles were almost completely submerged. neither one of those stations is back open, even tonight. it's been three weeks. they're still trying to get things together. wow! >> you really get an idea of the power of this thing. >> i can't imagine how to clean that up. >> the mess, yeah. pumping it out. >> without hot water. it would be different if it were fresh water. all right. we're looking at 55 today was the high. the average is now 58. the weekend still looks pretty

darn good. let's start with a live look outside. beautiful shot of the kennedy center. we're looking at temps primarily back in the 40's now. i don't know why the icon has clouds on it. it is clear as a bell outside. can't really figure that out. 49 right now. winds out of the north at 8 and the pressure is steady. over the past hour, 30. notice the dew point in the upper 20's, so some of us will be in the upper 20's tonight for lows. we had a few clouds early, a couple sprinkles along the delmarva. but now we are as clear as we can be, and we're going to stay that way pretty much through tomorrow night. 46 now in bethesda. they dropped four degrees. 48 in arlington. 44 in vienna. 53 in burke. don't know what's going on. maybe some barbecuing. 44 in bowie. a nice weekend ahead, really. chilly for high school football tonight.

nice for the terps game, though. you'll need your sunglasses all weekend. nice for the redskins game as well. the real nice thing about the weekend, not much wind. anytime you have 50's and wind, it can feel chilly. 28 to 38. winds north-northeast 10 to 15. winds will pick up after midnight. by morning, temperatures in the 30's and 40's. winds northeasterly at about 10. going to the terps game, well, prepare for temps 48 to 54, mostly sunny skies, a bit cool. if you're in the sun, you're going to be hot. if your in the shade, it will be cool. high temperatures near 55 on sunday. winds northeasterly at about 10. the redskin game, nice! very nice. we're looking at partly cloudy skies, pleasant. a light jacket a good idea. temperatures 52 to about 57. the next three days, our nine weather alerts are green. 54, nice on sunday.

a few clouds late, 55. and then seasonable on monday, 57. check out the next seven days. tuesday we had to introduce showers. 53. but then a quiet travel day on wednesday. 58. and i relinquished. i went 50 on thanksgiving day and 62 on friday. >> the turkey chase 5k in bethesda. before the dinner, what do you say? >> no, thank you. >> no, thank you? in this week's high school football profile, a team that once had a lofty reputation but then lost its way. >> northwest high school has now battled the long road back. >> how the jaguars did it. >> guys, first let me give it up to our high school staff. back in september, they produced this magazine, called prime magazine, in concert with usa today, and predicted northwest high school in german town would be a sleeper team, and they were correct.

they're 8-and-3 and playing in the regional finals. here's more on how the jags got there. >> reporter: northwest high school in german town has come a long way since mike's first year here as head coach two years ago. >> what was the record like when you came here? >> 1-and-9. >> reporter: now they're a play-off team. what's the reason for the turnaround? >> we were really undisciplined, didn't really know how to win. but like last year we started learning how to win and stuff. and this year, we're just getting a lot better. there was an attitude, that northwest came and took the program a little under. and i think the new coaches were brought in and they've finally been around for two years, and i think we got all that out, and we're back to where the program should be. >> reporter: besides technique and attitude, players credit their closeness as well as their coaching staff with their 8-and-3 record. it all starts with the coach, who says working on the little

things leads to winning, like last week against churchill. >> we were down i think 21-7 at halftime, then we came back to win. everyone on the bus ride home was just crazy. it was fantastic. >> what do you wish for this team? >> i think as individuals, if the kids take these memories and just have them for the rest of their lives and they're positive and smile when they think about it. >> reporter: they hope to make even more memories on their way to being state champs. they haven't done that since 2004, but back then they were a 3a squad. now they'd like to join their baseball counterparts. for 9 sports, i'm diane roberts. >> the jags play at orchard in the first round of the regionals. from now until the end of the season, we're giving away free jerseys to our facebook fans.

all you gotta do is go to us and "like" us on our facebook page. this week is the jersey of all jerseys, rg3! this can be yours, no. 10. all you gotta do is go to our facebook page and "like" us. tell us why you deserve to win. we'll announce the randomly selected winner tomorrow night. game on at 7:00. hey, rg3 jersey, doesn't get any better than that. >> and it gets even more valuable if he throws for like 800 yards on sunday. >> there you go. still ahead, the clock is ticking on capitol hill. they need to reach a deal on those mandatory budget cuts. coming up. a little later, the potential impacts of no deal on the air travel industry. but first, a variation of west nile virus could lead to more serious trouble for your brain. we'll talk about it, next.

this has been a very active year for west nile. new and disturbing concerns the virus is getting more powerful. experts say this year's strain seems to have mutated. it can attack the brain very agressively on infection. more than 200 people died from west nile this year. severe symptoms include disorientation, convulsions

>> it is very different from previous years. >> so far this year, more than # 5,000 west nile cases so far. more than any other year in the last decade. maryland has reached a multimillion settlement with drug maker smithkline. they have agreed to pay $90 million to settle allegations it illegally marketed it's diabetes drug avandia. the settlement puts companies on notice they need to take responsibility for their claims or face consequences. now to a remarkable student achievement in rockdale. jennifer vasquez was recognized today during a scholarship award luncheon at the university at shady grove. they bring together degree programs from nine different maryland universities.

the school was a good fit, because the demands of treatment along with medical benefits, derailed her plans to attend a four-year institution. >> my parents and i began to save what little money we could to pay for my tuition. but due to the economy, my father became unemployed for two years. after dealing with the hardship of surviving cancer, now we had to endure the financial burden of making ends meet with only one income. >> fortunately, jennifer was awarded a scholarship that permitted her to continue her studies at the shady grove campus. she plans to pursue a career in broadcast journalist. she already has a promise of a job from the bbc. we wish her well! with 45 days till the deadline, we are learning tonight that an overwhelming number of americans are worried about the fiscal cliff. a new poll out shows that 49%